The biggest names in British science were united in outrage this week at the Royal Institution’s plans to sell its handsome home in Albemarle Street, Mayfair, to settle its debts. The Nobel laureate Sir Harry Kroto declared: “The sale of the building will be the death-knell of the greatest shrine to not only British science but to the scientific culture of the world, and we must not let this happen.”

The loss of the institution’s home would not be Britain’s first failure to prevent the erosion of our scientific heritage; many other hallowed halls have long since disappeared.